Goodbye Christmas

There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter.
One is the January thaw.
The other is the seed catalogs.

Hal Borland

It took two full days to take Christmas "down" at our house, which is all work and no play like the "up" part. In between packing I also made trips to Home Depot's "Home Storage Event" to buy plastic tubs to replace the flimsy cardboard boxes. H.D. is smart-- first they sell you the stuff in November, then you have to go back later and buy containers to store it all in.

I have to admit, the open feeling is nice with the big dry tree out of the house. But when you finally get everything hauled back in the attic, there's an astonishing amount of dirt left behind. The tree left a swath of pine needles across the rug, floor, porch and right down the front steps into the yard.

But now I can think about spring. I got a Henry Fields seed catalog yesterday, and I always like looking at the pages with oddities like the Maypop. It's the weird looking thing in the lower right corner above. The catalog says it has Exotic Flowers; Tasty Fruit. I recognize the Maypop as a Passion Flower vine, but Henry Fields never gives botanical names. Or how about a Dwarf Pineapple or Pomegranate? Luscious fruit in the kitchen window? I have to remind myself that some of the most invasive plants I ever made the mistake of planting came from this catalog, arriving in the mail like innocent dead sticks.

I'm looking out the window at yellow buds on the forsythia, so in a couple days I'll bring some branches in to force into bloom. It would be nice if there wasn't another hard freeze (it does happen in Seattle some winters) but that's almost too much to hope for...